Maresca’s boys return to success after five games. Tosin, Cucurella and Madueke are on the net
Chelsea are back. For one evening they put aside that transfer market that makes January “disastrous”, to use the words of Enzo Maresca, and against Wolverhampton at Stamford Bridge they regain that victory in the Premier League that they had been missing for 5 games. The 3-1 built on a dominant second half is worth 40 points in the standings, fourth place overtaking Newcastle and Manchester City who will be the Blues’ next opponent on Saturday. In the second half Maresca finds his team again, the one with a precise personality and identity, the one that plays, builds, scores and slips little. The one that can put the market aside and start marching again, perhaps not at that unexpected pace that for a while transformed it into Liverpool’s first pursuer: Maresca repeated that Chelsea were not title-worthy even at the best moment, but he was also sure that it was not a team that fails to win for 5 Premier League games. The team that beat Wolverhampton, their third defeat in a row and still in the relegation zone, is close to the team they want.
the keys
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Chelsea deservedly won. And the best on the pitch was a January addition, Trevoh Chalobah recalled last week from his loan at Crystal Palace to fix the holes left in the defense by injuries. The Englishman manages the rearguard with personality, provides the assist to make it 3-1 to Madueke, demonstrates that the idea of bringing him back to Stamford Bridge was the right one for a team that is exploring many options in this window, both incoming ( Garnacho’s agent, also a target of Napoli, was at the stadium) who was leaving (João Felix, who Milan likes, played the last 6′, Renato Veiga on Juve’s radar was not called up), but who has not yet found his strategy. So it’s better, as Maresca tries to do, to concentrate on the pitch: where, in addition to Chalobah, Cucurella shines, author of the goal that brought Chelsea back ahead in the 60th minute after goalkeeper Robert Sanchez’s mess in added time in the first half (fourth error which led to a goal, the second worst figure in the Premier League) had canceled out Tosin’s advantage. The Blues of the second half have personality even if Cole Palmer is not the usual star, they have game and style and are concrete in the opponent’s half of the pitch as they hadn’t been in the first half. The current fourth place was the goal at the start of the season: after dreaming big, the Blues are looking for their dimension. And that growth on the pitch that must continue even while the market goes crazy.
the match
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The Blues broke the balance with Tosin in the 24th minute, whose goal following a corner initially disallowed for offside was rehabilitated by VAR. Chelsea slowed down after taking the lead, and Wolverhampton took advantage of it in the long recovery, finding the 1-1 with Doherty with the heavy complicity of Sanchez, the fourth error of the season which resulted in a goal. Maresca starts again without substitutions and when he is about to make the first (Sancho for Neto) he finds the goal with Cucurella, who catches a shot from Dewsbury-Hall in the center of the area. It’s the 60th minute, five minutes later Stamford Bridge is celebrating again with Madueke converting a splendid Chalobah tower into the 3-1. Wolverhampton are too smoky to return: what is the first victory for the Blues after 5 games, for the Wolves it is the third consecutive defeat.
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